Andy Sparaco SOC

If you have and incident meter the light falling on the stage should fall on the incident dome. Your incident meter may also have a "reflected mode" which would more correctly measure light coming off the stage. As you said biggest problem will be the wild changes in brightness typical of a stage performance. If you move onto the stage your reading will be different then the balcony A spot meter would be a better choice for a meter. 7218 can pretty much see what you can see if you have fast enough lenses If you get into a pinch and the house lights are down just shoot everything at maximum f-stop and you will be fine. Negative is so much more forgiving then reversal film Try and get the performers between you and the lights at least you will get strong backlight images everyone will think are "arty"

Actually, I tracked down Van Diemens and visited them while I was shooting in England and Europe for Discreet Logic. I wanted an Arri-S conversion to match a P+S Technic SR EVO re-furb that Jorge handled. I hate to say it but I brought VD to Jorges door :D . My camera was to be the first but another camera came thru which was needed more quickly and I thought -let them practive on it! I was lucky as we requested a number of mods after the first camera. Jorge had to make a number of modifications after the fact -when I received the camera back fron VD- the flange distance of the PL mount was whacked so far you could not focus more then two feet in front of the lens-so much for VD's QC. So after a lot of "massage" on Jorges part all problems where resolved. He never leaves you holding the bag.

16mm has come a long way but when you slap a wideangle lens on the camera, the optical design of a wide angle lens delivers a wider view by making everything in the picture smaller including fine detail. If you stay away from the WA's and alway use the longest lens possible you magnify detail and deliver more of a 35mm look. Works great if you can back up! My lens package is in two cases the wides and the tights . Always leave the wides in the production vehicle.

If you want S16 to look like 35mm never use a focal length lens wider then 25mm. That is the secret!

Yes, There may be a third camera lurking about. The orginal conversions were done for the BBC by Van Diemens as crash cams. The view finders where not modified to present S-16. Du-All added a Fiber optic screen to the second camera which I own . The difference in viewing from a fiber optic screen in an SR-EVO and the Ground Glass in the Arri-S was disturbing! After the DU-All mod they were very close I had visited the Van Diemen operation in 1999 and met the technical staff. They seemed capable, the Economic crash in 2000/2001 killed them The technical folks have gone into busness and various parts and acessories can be had thru www.FilmCameraKit.Com. The camera is really fun to shoot with a pistol grip sort of a poor mans A-minima Is a nice compliment to an SR package Like a Arri 2C was a nice match to a Arri BL package. Very practical two camera set up with interchangable lenses and acessories thats's how I use it.

There are two Arri-S Super 16mm/PL mount cameras in the US. Both where refurbished Arri S cameras in good condition. Cinematechnic acted as Van Diemens US agent for these conversions. One has had a very sad life indeed. Purchased by a aspiring film maker to shoot a feature film in Arkansas it arrived late to the production was kicked about and seen hanging around strip clubs then was sold for post production money to a camera store and has slipped into disgrace and oblivion. The second has shot TV commercials and car footage thundering thru the Southwest and lives in Chicago when not visiting Cinematechic for additional modifications. If jorge@cinematechnic gets enough requests he will do the modification.